Daily Archives: December 6, 2012

Not fully sure about the name yet, but for now they’re called The Neville Letters.

I’ve loooong wanted to make a physical snail-mail newsletter I send out once a month.

There’s something so intrinsically satisfying to me about writing something, then printing it on paper. As I hold it in my hand, I think, “I….Neville Medhora…..MADE this thing.”(I say it in my Caveman Voice)

THE REASON IT’S PHYSICAL AND NOT EMAIL OR WEB:For YOU.

When I just write something and hit “Publish” ….and it’s free …and I don’t really know the people I’m sending to…. the content is gonna be different.

I’ve always wanted to send “Things” to people, not just words. I personally love sitting in bed with a physical book or newsletter and marking it up with a pen. I take away MUCH MORE than a simple email to me.

The reason is UNDERSTANDING.

If I just say, “Hey, you should tell a story in your copy to increase conversions.” ….that’s sort of lame, and won’t stick in your head.

IT’S MY FREAKIN JOB TO BURN LESSONS INTO YOUR BRAIN, so for example…..I’ve always wanted instead to send a box with a crappy little stuffed animal in it, and say something like:

“This stuffed animal rabbit was found on Howland Island towards the end of 1937….just 6 months after Amelia Earhart’s famous disappearance. Howland Island is over 1,700 miles away from the Hawaiian Islands, making it one of the most remote places on Earth.

Humans had never visited the island till a search crew landed on it’s beaches.

What you’re holding here is not just a small, grey, stuffed rabbit with it’s eye poked out. This rabbit was believed to be in the plane of Amelia Earhart (the first woman to fly across the Atlantic) when her plane crashed somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle.

This rabbit found on Howland Island was the exact type Amelia Earhart use to fly with as a good luck charm (confirmed by her parents). What you’re holding in your hand is believed to be the ONLY PIECE OF EVIDENCE ever found of Amelia Earhart’s wrecked plane.

…..now look again at this piece-of-junk stuffed animal. You thought it was a 25 cent item at a garage sale. But now it’s priceless. It’s value went from 25 cents to something that would fetch over $1,000,000 at a Sotheby’s auction.

Why?

THE STORY BEHIND IT.

DAMN that was good!

I made up the whole thing about this stuffed rabbit being found, but that person would now fully understand the value-adding power of a great story. Physically holding that rabbit in your hands will make a HUGE difference in the way you grasp the concept of how stories can work. It will be the difference between “understand the concept” and “A light switch in your brain turning on.”

I view it as my DUTY to press these lessons into people’s heads……and using a physical medium is still far more powerful than our current experience on the internet.

I think that’s worth a whole helluva-a-lot more than $100 every month.

My plan is so ultra-super-duper-hardcore burn ONE main lesson into people’s brains with each newsletter.

The lessons will primarily be in the kopywriting world……but in my mind, kopywriting and business are the same thing.

THE REASON I’M CHARGING:REASON #1.) It’s like….work and shit to send these out. I’ve long run a drop-shipping business and know it’s a pain in the ass to keep track of physical inventory and all the random real-world things that happen to a package.

REASON #2.) FOR YOU TO LEARN BETTER. I was long a believer that all my products should be cheap as possible. Lemme tell you, I HAVE CHANGED. It has absolutely zero to do with making more money, and everything to do with PEOPLE WHO PAY FOR SOMETHING VALUE IT MORE.

….and the MORE they pay, the MORE they pay attention.

I have seen this countless times now…..most poignantly with AppSumo tests we’ve done:

Let’s say something like the wildly-popular and helpful SumoBusinessBlueprint. We sell it for $69. People LOVE it, they LEARN A LOT from it, and many go onto create businesses from it, or at least change their entire mind about how to start a business.

But we’ve tried tests where we sold it for $18 also. It sold well at the lower price, but the engagement was low, the people learned very little since they didn’t value it (not everyone, but there was an extraordinarily noticeable drop in interaction), and people thought it was “just ok”.

We then tried selling this product for $1. Yup, just 1 buck.

I thought it was going to be the most AMAZING deal people ever got, and they would all love me.

You know what happened?

THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS WERE THE LEAST-MOTIVATED, MOST-BITCHIEST, WORST CUSTOMERS WE EVER HAD!

That stupidly low price did many things:

De-valued the whole product (when did you think something that was $1.00 was EXTREMELY valuable to you)?

Attracted basement-bargain hunters.

Made the course a total “impulse buy” which people could grab ….and then never use.

Lowered the ratings on the course as these non-perfect-customers would say, “This sucks I want a refund.”

We tried this on several courses, and the shitty results were consistant.

The craziest thing was…..when we price-tested higher prices (particularly $89), the satisfaction rate went UP! The higher price scared away the bargain hunters and impulse buyers….leaving us only with people serious about bettering their understanding of starting a bid-naz.

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ANYHOW, If you can come up with a better name than“The Neville Letters”, lemme know. Current ideas I have are:

Nev Letters

Nev’s Letters

The Kopywriting Kronicles

Kopywriting Letters

Neville Medhora’s Kopywriting Letters

?????

If you would like to start getting The Neville Letters in your physical mailbox, you can signup below. The 1st edition is ready to send out (I actually already sent the 1st two copies to Noah, and my good friend Ryan):

I’m EXCITED AS HELL ABOUT THIS! Hope you come join me on this journey.